A report investigating community demand and requirements for setting up a UK Private LOCKSS Network is now available.

The report summarises a survey of members of the UK LOCKSS Alliance carried out by EDINA during October and November 2011. The survey investigated the potential value of Private LOCKSS Networks to UKLA members and focused on assessing the type of content members wish to preserve in a PLN, together with the cost and resource implications.

Agreed at the UKLA Members’ Meeting in May 2012, next steps are to prepare a short proposal identifying possible routes forward.

A Members’ Meeting of the UKLA was held in York on 10 May 2011 where attendees expressed an enthusiasm for further assessment of PLNs. The approach agreed was to conduct a survey of members to assess the level of interest for establishing a PLN, and to gather more detailed information on community requirements:  how members could envisage the PLN being structured, the content they proposed using it for, and how they expected to benefit from the PLN. A full report of this event is available on the UKLA website.  The PLN survey was carried out during October and November 2011 and focused on identifying content for preservation, costs and resources together with potential infrastructure models. The purpose of this report is to summarise the results of the survey and apply them to the various factors that need consideration when establishing a new PLN.

We would be grateful for UK HE community feedback on this report, so please either submit a comment to this post, or contact EDINA directly at edina@ed.ac.uk.